Lives of the First World War

On the morning of the 1st of July 1916 the 5th City Battalion, the 20th Manchester's held half a mile of front line between the quarry, three hundred yards south east of Bois Francais, to the cross roads south of Fricourt on the Mametz Becondel Road. The entirety of the 22nd Brigade's attack would therefore be carried out by just this one Battalion. On the afternoon of their attack the Battalion fighting strength was 20 officers and 670 men. At a crucial point in the battle - front it was an injudicious decision to leave such a long frontage to so few men. At 2.30 pm the 20th Manchester's attack went in "C" Company moved forward over quite incredible cratered terrain at Bois Francais "A" and "B" Companies advanced towards the sunken road which ran from Wing Corner, near Fricourt, "D" Company provided support. The machine guns in the areas of Zinc Trench and Wing Corner played havoc with the men of "A" and "B" Companies together with support of "D" Company as the men approached the exposed ground in front of the sunken road. Whilst they had not made great progress, enough had been achieved to secure the left flank of the 20th Brigade. Within twenty four hours Fricourt itself was occupied and the disintegration of the 5th Manchester Pals was justified in the eyes of the divisional and higher commands, The 5th Manchester City Battalion's casualties were by no means the highest suffered by any of the other Manchester Pals this day. Nevertheless, they had lost their commanding officer, together with four Captains killed six of the subalterns killed, six other officer casualties, 110 men killed 29 missing and 171 wounded. During the coming ten days the Battalion required draft of more than five hundred men to make good their losses.

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